Bloomberg Agrees to Work With Antiwar Protesters on Best Route for a March in Manhattan

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

Published: March 6, 2003

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday that his administration would most likely grant a permit to the organizers of last month's antiwar protest who have asked to march through the streets in another demonstration planned for this month.

The city refused to grant a permit to the protest organizers, United for Peace and Justice, to march past the United Nations on Feb. 15, citing security risks. The group challenged that decision in court, but a federal judge ruled that the city had not violated the demonstrators' First Amendment rights. Instead, hundreds of thousands of protesters held a stationary rally on First Avenue to protest a potential war in Iraq.

On Monday, the group applied for a police permit to march to Washington Square Park via Fifth Avenue and 59th Street on March 22. Yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg appeared to be reversing the position he took last month.

''This city has a long history of allowing people to march,'' Mr. Bloomberg said during a news conference in Queens. ''And I don't see any reason why we can't work out a route that will be acceptable to the organizers and to the city.''

Mr. Bloomberg said the protesters were not granted a permit last month because they were too insistent on their location.

''We tried to have a discussion about a route,'' Mr. Bloomberg said. ''They wanted to march in front of the United Nations. That's the one thing where we were concerned about security. They were not willing to talk about really any other route. I would hope this time that is not the case. The city will provide, to the extent that it can, places, venues, locations for people to express themselves.''

Yesterday, protest organizers disputed the mayor's version of events.

''We were not at all intransigent,'' said Leslie Cagan of United for Peace and Justice. ''We made it perfectly clear that we had a plan, we had a proposal, but that we would also negotiate another route. We were totally flexible, and they said that there was absolutely no way that any permit would be granted for anywhere in Manhattan.''

By permitting antiwar protesters to gather along First Avenue last month, city officials may have created more police work than was anticipated. As crowds tried to make their way to the site, many people were trapped in human traffic on streets west of the protest, which caused confusion and conflicts between would-be protesters and the police.

''We think it was a mistake,'' Ms. Cagan said, ''because had we had the right to march, people would have gathered on First Avenue, and we never would have had the congestion we had on Second and Third Avenues.''

Yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg played down any security worries for another protest. ''We have to provide security, and we have to worry about the costs of doing so,'' he said.

As of yesterday, the Police Department had not made plans to meet with the march's organizers to discuss a possible route. ''We have discussed their requests and alternatives with their lawyer by phone,'' said Deputy Chief Michael Collins, a police spokesman. ''We have yet to have a face-to-face meeting, and when that happens, we'll work it out one way or the other.''